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Design and fabrication of inverted tapered micro-pillars for spontaneously transporting liquid upward

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Abstract

Directional liquid transport has significant domestic and industrial applications. Theoretically, tapered objects can transport a liquid droplet horizontally or along a small slant angle: Many biomaterials have already demonstrated this ability. However, spontaneously transporting liquid in the vertical direction has been challenging. In this study, a numerical model was developed to simulate the transporting process and design inverted tapered pillars. The range of acceptable parameters for the pillar’s geometry was obtained. When the taper angle, the diameter of the bottom end of the pillar, and the contact angle of the liquid are less than 10°, 80 μm, and 54.5°, respectively, then liquid may be transported upward spontaneously. An experimental setup for fabricating the pillars was also developed and presented. With this setup, the designed pillars were successfully fabricated by the gradient electrochemical corrosion method and enhanced its wettability by the electrochemical modification method. The fabricated pillars were then experimentally validated, showing that they can spontaneously transport a micrometer-scale droplet upward. These results may provide a new and systematic way to design and fabricate a tool for high-efficiency liquid transport.

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Acknowledgements

The work presented in the paper is partially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (51605100, U1601202), Fund of Guangdong R&D Science and Technology (2016A010102016, 2017A030313314, 2016A030308016, 2015B010104008, 2015B010133005), Guangzhou General Programs for Science and Technology Development (201707010446), and Hong Kong Research Grants Council (14243616, CityU:11207714).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Electromechanical Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Yun Chen, Dachuang Shi, Xiquan Mai, Jian Gao & Xin Chen

  2. Key Laboratory of Mechanical Equipment Manufacturing and Control Technology of Ministry of Education, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Yun Chen, Dachuang Shi, Xiquan Mai, Jian Gao & Xin Chen

  3. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA

    Yun Chen, Liyi Li & Ching-Ping Wong

  4. Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Han-Xiong Li

  5. School of Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong

    Yun Chen & Ching-Ping Wong

Authors
  1. Yun Chen
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  2. Dachuang Shi
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  3. Xiquan Mai
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  4. Liyi Li
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  5. Jian Gao
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  6. Xin Chen
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  7. Han-Xiong Li
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  8. Ching-Ping Wong
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Contributions

Y.C carried out the experiments and drafted the manuscript. D.S, X.M, and L.L helped the experiments. J.G, X.C, H.L, and C.P.W contributed to the principal aspects and supervised the progress of the research. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Xin Chen or Ching-Ping Wong.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Chen, Y., Shi, D., Mai, X. et al. Design and fabrication of inverted tapered micro-pillars for spontaneously transporting liquid upward. Microfluid Nanofluid 22, 9 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-017-2020-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-017-2020-6

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